Saturday, 31 October 2009

Just a few weeks until our UKOUG Conference JDE Event. I am really looking forward to this. As ever we have great support from Oracle with both John Schiff and Lyle Ekdahl over from the US who are coming over because they care about their customers.

There will also be an analyst from gartner giving us something to think about.

Lyle will host a roundtable with the title 'What's the Fusion Story' come along to this very interactive session and then we have a special offer for you. Any one who has attended as a delegate one of the other UKOUG 2009 conference event days including JDE can attend free the Wednesday morning (2nd December) of the Technical & EBS conference event where there will be a 2 hour demo of Fusion Applications.

And if all that is not enough (only joking) I will be presenting at the JDE conference about how you can use Fusion Technology today with JDE.

If you work for an organisation that wants to be first with fusion Apps, get in touch I want to be part of that.

I have publicly said I thought Oracle were wrong to stop talking about Fusion Apps but they have now and more importantly removed the NDA 'gag' so let's not worry about the past and start talking.

First, just to make it clear we are allowed to talk about Fusion Applications but they have not yet been released so every presentation from Oracle is still going to include the 'Safe Harbor' statement. (T shirts available). Oracle will release the Applications once all the validation is complete and they are happy it is ready for the market.

I hope that now people understand that Fusion Applications are a completely new User Experience built entirely with Fusion Middleware. That means that you can take whichever part of Fusion Apps works for you and integrate it to your existing applications or take it all or simply build your own Fusion portfolio.

I keep on saying it, but it is all about choice. If you haven't seen a demo yet then try and do so. UKOUG has 2 hours of demos on the Tuesday of their conference repeated on the Wednesday.

So start listening to your user group or to those people who know, like Floyd Teter (despite his horrible comments about me in his blog). As the Unconference I asked Floyd and basheer khan and Beth Correa to talk about their thoughts on the Fusion Validation we have all been privileged to be part of, and we all agree we expected mind blowing technology but it is simply the user experience that will make Fusion Apps the success that they will be. .

My friends on facebook will know I have struggled to get back into the swing of things post Open World. The 26 hour turn around between arriving home and being back on the road was OK, I like being busy but the last week has been harder but expect a complete fest of posts today, I am on a roll!

My headliner for Oracle Open World was obviously Fusion Applications but this year there was actually an awful lot going on.

I think I will quickly cover the other important things and then come back to Fusion Apps in the next post.

Oracle kept the Complete Open and Integrated strap line which is I think quite a testament (although Integrated was the first thing to go Friday when the events people started to strip the Moscone).

The first keynote was Rather like a goodbye speech from Scott McNeally – reminiscing. This Oracle-Sun keynote very credible and strong support from the audience. I personally hope the acquisition is approved quickly so that both organisations can move on so that the users can see what it means for them. I think it will be a good thing, there is plenty of competition out there and as long as Oracle don't make the mistake of shipping everything on SUN only, customers will continue to have choice and integration. I thought the Java and Solaris components were more important than the tin but then Exadata is now all about the tin so Larry never fails to surprise.

On the left in this photo is my great friend Dan Norris, who has given up his ACE Director status to join Oracle in the Exadata team and he is one excited person who is loving his job. His enthusiasm about what Exadata can do is so obvious. I have no doubt he and the team he is in will be busy with the big $10 million dollar challenge that Larry threw down to IBM users.

Charles and Safra had a joint keynote and Safra made a joke about Open World being called 'Open' as part of the Complete, Open and Integrated message. Luckily they then kept to technology and had a number of demos of where their applications are being integrated to give industry solutions. They talked about how they didn't realise how difficult it was to integrate separate systems until they rationalised Oracle's internal IT a few years ago.

Thomas Kurian talked about the innovation that has come from the development and about the breadth of that innovation. The headliners were FMW 11g and the latest release of the database. He stated every second of every day someone downloads an Oracle Product.

In Larry's main Keynote He talked more about SUN and Exadata, he talked about Next Generation Support.My Oracle Support in the Cloud unified with Oracle Enterprise Manager on premise. Patching proactively based on your configuration. When it arrives, if users adopt it,, this will make a real difference. Then he talked about Fusion Applications. I was very worried I really thought it might get dropped. The first presentation in the slot seemed to go on for longer than I expected, then Larry started his presentation and then introduced Arnold Swarzenegger to the stage who was excellent but when Larry took back the microphone we eventually finished 45 minutes late.

Arnie was fantastic, he played the 'dumb foreigner' made jokes about himself but actually had a very important message, that technology is key to success in so many areas. It was a motivational speech and very funny.

This year Oracle had all the keynotes on a Live Stream which was great especially the day I couldn't leave my hotel room because of the rain. But don't be fooled in thinking it is an alternative to being at Open World. Yes it is great to hear the leaders on the main stage giving you their spin on the message of the day, but the real value is in the smaller sessions and the demo grounds talking to the people in development and anyone you want to meet in the Oracle World is there.

In fact another great friend Mogens comes to open World every year and often does not even enter Moscone. He takes over a local hostelry and meets up with all those he needs to over a beer. This year he held 'Closed World' were each day a speaker from OOW had a more in depth technical opportunity to interact with the greatest Oracle minds around.

But if you weren't able to get to OOW Oracle did interview each keynote speaker and record short videos which are well worth viewing.

Thursday, 15 October 2009

I can finally talk about Fusion. I have received the following email from Oracle

Hi Debra - the NDA for blogging about Fusion Apps is lifted. Here are some screen shots -

So it would be wrong not to share them with you

I had intended not to blog until I have thought about what to say more thoroughly but the announcements today was what I have been waiting for a long time. I am as I have said before privileged to be a part of the process so there was nothing today I had not seen but I had not been able to share that with you. What I enjoyed most was the beaming smiles on the faces of Steve Miranda and Chris Leone, proud fathers finally getting to share their offspring with the world. I have been big critics of the insistence of waiting for the right time and I am not sure if they waited longer than necessary but now it is out we can talk about what it means to software users.

Today in a presentation I asked if people remembered \Navigate from the old EBS 10.7 days, I looked back at it nostalgically but we really were laughing about how archaic it seemed, well in years to come we will say that about silo'd applications. The integration story from Oracle culminating in Fusion Apps, is not the software of the future it is here today.

So if you have questions come along tomorrow morning and hear from 3 Fusion Apps Geeks who have had their NDA lifted about 'how we can't wait till Fusion Apps are here' or should I say we can't wait until they are General Availability. Find us in the Unconference (the best OOW sessions) next to the OTN lounge at 10am. I will be joined by 2 very special friends Floyd Teter of ORCLville and Basheer Khan

The fun then starts, I don't want to be the first person to blog because although this is my area of expertise I want to reflect and talk to people in the know first.

But am I excited, you bet. I have touched the apps, I have run the processes and I love it. The user experience is the best and will blow away anything you have ever thought about ERP.

But if they are announced then the real work starts, helping users to understand what this means, their options and no small issue of the licensing model. So let's wait, see if and what Larry says, think about it and I'll get back to you.

Am I excited yes, and I also hear Arnie will be on stage. So that's all from me today, let someone else claim first with the news, I just want to be there

Monday, 12 October 2009

There are many tweets and blogs about insiders tips for Oracle Open World but one I would give you is get an access all areas badge.

Anyway now I have gott my almost front row seat I have a great view of Scott from Sun, I have never heard him speak live before and he is really funny and very clever. He started with a funny top 10 of useless innovations and the 10 important innovations from Sun. He said he felt like a proud Papa and he should be.

Sunday, 11 October 2009

As an ACE Director I arrived for OOW Thursday evening as we had a briefing in HQ on Friday. I love these days, we are ACEs because we specialise in our own particular area and are recognised for the work we do in that area, but it is so easy to become silo'd in that and not appreciate the rest of the Oracle portfolio and in these 'Complete, Open and Integrated' days you simply can't afford not to know a little bit about everything.

The highlight of the day for me was Thomas Kurian making an appearance. When he is behind a programme you feel the programme is going somewhere. Too often in Oracle I have seen great initiatives start and then get stamped out or run down when they get big enough to be on the radar of top executives. Not only is Thomas 100% behind the programme but he answered my question around ACEs in the applications space. I don't think all the Apps Executives are as aware of the programme and the value of engaging as those in the Technical area, and Thomas said he is working on that. THANKYOU Remember Thomas heads both technology and applications development so he is the right person to do this.

After the event we were given a few drinks and then taken into San Francisco to our hotel prior to the start of OOW09. Bring it on.

Friday, 9 October 2009

Last year UKOUG instigated Partner Awards where our members vote for partners in 20 categories. It was a great success so I was really looking forward to this years’ awards ceremony. It was held in the Landmark Hotel and everyone had a great time.

My job is to look after the guest speaker and this year we had Carol Thatcher daughter of the Iron Lady and one time Queen of the Jungle, which is how she asked me to introduce her. She gave a very funny rendition of incidents in not only her life but all of her family. If you see me ask me about Margaret Thatcher wearing THE Terminator’s Shades at a very important funeral! When I talked to Carol about the awards I wanted her to understand how important it is that whilst Oracle give awards directly they are decided on their criteria whereas the UKOUG awards are totally independent of Oracle and voted on by customers. Carol understood immediately and said it was like comparing Political Voting in government (like mummy had) with the popular vote like Carol had to win ‘I’m a Celebrity. Very astute.

Back to the awards, the partners were very passionate about their achievements and a great evening was had by all. It was important for partners to have an evening to celebrate success in this hard economic times and for UKOUG it made money which always helps to keep membership costs down.

Another hectic lead up to Open World, I have had 3 days of 18 hour days to try and clear the decks for the conference. Just like last year I have a really full on week.

As Fujitsu I am presenting #S307747 Shared-Service Oracle E-Business Suite 12, Oracle Business Intelligence Applications, and SOA on Tues 4-5 Moscone West 3020, and this is repeated in an Executive Forum on Wednesday.

I then have two Product Development Committees presentations, one a open session #312188 midday at User Group Sunday were I encourage everyone to come along and tell us what you think we should be doing on the behalf of all users next year with Oracle Development. Then I will be demonstrating our Applications Upgrade Planning Tool #307745 Wednesay 13.45 Moscone West 2002.

As an ACE Director I have been invited by Ahmeed Taylor to his OAUG Customization & Extension SIG at 3pm in Moscone West 3002 to give a FMW4APPS demo, come along and see how easy it is to take your existing EBS processes and run them as SOA processes.

I'm also giving an Unconference Session with fellow ACE Directors Basheer Khan and Floyd Teter on ‘Why We can’t wait for Fusion Applications’ on Thursday at 10.30.

I have a number of forums to attend around my actual Day Job, BI and then the Fusion Inner Circle on Thursday, so once I have attended them and the keynotes I may have time to do some work on the Fujitsu booth #1501 or EOUC booth in the User Group Pavilion and of course spend time in the OTN area with my fellow ACEs.